X VNC History

The version and release numbers are explained on the main VNC
history page. This page primarily concerns changes to the Unix and
Java packages. The changes to the Windows packages are listed separately
here.

The important changes in each version are summarised here; see the
source package for more details.

Changes in version 3.3.3R1

Xvnc now uses a "deferred update" mechanism which enhances performance in
many cases. After any change to the framebuffer, Xvnc waits for a time
(default 40ms) before sending an update to any waiting clients. This means
that more changes tend to get coalesced together in a single update. The time
can be changed with the -deferupdate option. Setting it to 0 results in the
same behaviour as previous versions of Xvnc.

There are a couple of security enhancements. The -localhost option now
causes Xvnc to only listen on the loopback interface. This means that it
shouldn't be vulnerable to port scanning. Also a "too many tries" feature on
authentication failure is now implemented. After five failed attempts, further
attempts are delayed by an exponentially increasing amount, starting at ten
seconds.

When given -owncmap in full screen mode, tries to install the colormap.
This works only when no window manager is running.

The popup window now always uses the default colormap.

The "backing store" attribute can now be set on the desktop window via the
"backingStore" resource. It defaults to "Always", meaning the X server should
keep the contents of the viewer window when it gets obscured by other
windows.

vncpasswd

Completely new viewer based on Xt. Development has ceased on the old
Xlib-based viewer.

Release date: 19 August 1999

Changes in version 3.3.2 R3

Xvnc

Fixed an important memory leak.

vncserver

The vncserver script should cope better with different Perl versions.
X cookies generated more securely.

vncviewer

Uses shared memory on Linux.
More secure clearing of password.

Release date: 14 December 1998

Changes in version 3.3.2 R2

Xvnc

Cutting text inside Xvnc works to a remote viewer again.

Resource leak fixed which limited total number of times Xvnc could be
connected to.

vncserver

Warns of likely failure when starting a 16 bpp desktop on Solaris.

No longer tries to find out the geometry, depth and pixel format of
the current X display being used. This feature can be enabled if desired
by uncommenting a line in the script.

Release date: 23 July 1998

Changes in version 3.3.2

The changes in 3.3.2 will have little effect on the normal user.
There should be a slight increase in speed in certain circumstances, but
the majority of changes are 'under the hood'. The X server is now
based on XFree86 3.3.2. This should make it easier to build on more
platforms, and means that it is now based on X11R6.3 rather than X11R6.

X vncviewer

-viewonly, -geometry, -wmdecoration options

Options for debugging servers: change -delay to -rawdelay, plus

-copyrectdelay, -region

Options allowed before or after host:dpynum argument

Handle changes to local X keyboard mapping

Rudimentary single bit-per-pixel support (thanks to Chris Hooper)

Xvnc server

Based on XFree86 3.3.2 distribution

Faster pixel-format translation routines

Improved HTTP server. Now performs substitution on any files ending in
.vnc, so that default options to the VNC applet can be configured on the
server side.